As nations raise shoulders over their nuclear edge over one another, there could be no better place for the world to reassess the drive than in a city obliterated by a United States (U.S.) atomic bomb over 70 years ago, Hiroshima.
Right here, this time, Japan has kicked off a gathering of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies with a call to end nuclear weapons. Japanese Foreign Minister, Fumio Kishida, who presides over the two-day annual meeting this year, said yesterday that ministers would also discuss anti-terrorism steps, maritime security and issues related to North Korea, Ukraine and the Middle East.
U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, is billed to join counterparts from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan today to visit an atomic bomb museum and lay flowers at a cenotaph for nuclear bomb victims. He will bethe first in his post to do so. The move could possibly pave the way for a never-before visit to Hiroshima by a U.S. president when Barack Obama attends the annual meeting of G7 leaders in Japan next month.
During World War II, a U.S. warplane dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, reducing the city to ashes and killing 140,000 people by the end of that year. Three days later, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, and Japan surrendered six days later.
Meanwhile, maritime security is also on the cards after China rattled nerves in the region with its controversial reclamation work in the South China Sea. However, Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, hasurged the participating ministers not to “hype up” the South China Sea issue.
Wang’s comment over the weekend was followed by an article by China’s officialXinhua News Agencyyesterday on the prospects of the G7 meeting discussing the matter.
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